Analyst in trading ring case may have fled: SEC

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc analyst who was in custody for more than two years for leading an insider-trading ring that netted more than $6.7 million is in violation of his probation and may have left the country, according to a court filing.

David Pajcin, a former fixed-income analyst at the investment bank, is “in violation of his probation” according to information supplied by federal prosecutors, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer Scott Block wrote in the filing.

The SEC letter, filed late on Monday in U.S. District Court in New York, said both the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and Pajcin’s criminal defense lawyer “have informed us that they believe he is no longer in the country.”

Pajcin was arrested in November 2005 and pleaded guilty in April 2006 to charges including conspiracy and insider trading. The SEC brought a separate civil case against him and other defendants.

He was held in custody following his arrest and cooperated with prosecutors investigating the trading ring. At his sentencing in January, a judge said he did not have to serve further prison time, but sentenced him to three years of supervised release and ordered him to forfeit $6.7 million.

The case began when U.S. authorities grew suspicious of trading in options of sports gear maker Reebok International ahead of its merger with Adidas AG in an account in the name of a retired Croatian seamstress, who was Pajcin’s aunt.

A criminal defense lawyer for Pajcin, Jesse Siegel, told Reuters on Tuesday he had “no idea” where the former analyst was. He said he had not told the SEC that he believed Pajcin was out of the country, but that “it wouldn’t be hard for me to believe that he would have left the country.”

“I was contacted quite awhile back by his probation officer that he had not been reporting for supervised release. I hadn’t had any contact with him for awhile.”